Elephant and a tiger war

On the Vietnamese side, the EVN and especially the Viet Cong were very clear that this tactic of attack could cause damage and may not be the right course of action. Again there was some metaphor: It will be a fight between an elephant and a tiger. If the tiger is still, the elephant will crush him without remedy, but the tiger will never keep still. It will jump on the back of the elephant tearing chunks of flesh to hide in the jungle after. So the will elephant will die.

This phrase captures the essence and sometimes cruel atrocious side of war. Like most all guerrilla wars, a member of the Viet Cong clearly explained: Our comrades felt no pain. They knew they had to kill as many Americans as possible.

The Vietnamese people used their land to their advantage. They could hide in the jungle without being seen by viewers even lighted by starlight or infrared. Shelters could create more or less security and they could hide behind an ambush or escape from a search and destroy action.

The Vietnamese knew how to use the hostile jungle to their advantage too, something the Americans failed to fully understand, as evidenced by the desire to end the vegetation with defoliants or convert vacant land into a quagmire based bombs.